Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T22:49:49.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

§5 - Plato and the Third Man Argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2023

Jeffrey A. Bell
Affiliation:
Southeastern Louisiana University
Get access

Summary

1. Plato's Theory of Forms

A version of the problem of relations (§2) that is found in Plato and Aristotle is most commonly known as the Third Man Argument, an argument that has been used against Plato's theory of Forms. We first find it in Plato's dialogue Parmenides, where Parmenides presents his understanding of Socrates’ theory of Forms, suggesting that it consists of the fact that ‘when there is a number of things which seem to you to be great, you may think, as you look at them all, that there is one and the same idea in them, and hence you think the great is one’ (132a1–4). There is thus one idea (or Form) that accounts for the fact that many particulars, e.g., horses, are seen as horses, or great things are seen as great, in that they each share in some way in the nature of this one Form. Socrates replies that this is indeed the case; he understands the nature of Forms in this way. It is at this point, however, that the problem of relations enters the scene, for the question now arises as to the nature of the relationship between these Forms and the many particulars that in some way instantiate them.

2. Vlastos on the Third Man Argument

This problem of relations – that is, the regress problem commonly known as the Third Man Argument (or TMA) – directly follows from Plato's theory of Forms. As Vlastos (1954) shows in his classic paper, the TMA arises as a result of two implicit premises at work in the Parmenides. The first is what Vlastos refers to (following the lead of A.E. Taylor [1916]) as the Self-Predication Assumption (SP). What is assumed, in short, is that ‘Largeness is itself large. F-ness is itself F’ (Vlastos 1954, 323). Without this assumption, one would not be able to identify what the Form has in common with the particular, and hence see the particular as exemplifying or instantiating this Form. The second assumption is the Nonidentity Assumption (NI), whereby the characterising trait, F-ness, is taken to be nonidentical with the particular that has this trait. As Vlastos puts it, ‘If x is F, x cannot be identical with F-ness’ (325).

Type
Chapter
Information
An Inquiry into Analytic-Continental Metaphysics
Truth, Relevance and Metaphysics
, pp. 19 - 27
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×